Line 6 Pocket POD

Line 6 set the guitar world on its collective
ear when they unleashed the original
POD in 1997. At the time, walking into
any recording studio, guitar shop or early
adopter’s home resulted in one or more
of the red, kidney-shaped oddities being
thrust into your face, immediately followed
by the inevitable proclamation of, “It
sounds exactly like an amp!”

Demonstrating that the trickle-down
theory is at work and thriving in the world
of consumer electronics, the Pocket POD
provides the same 32 amp and 16 effects
models available on the POD 2.0 in a
pint-sized package, but giving up some indepth,
standalone editing functions in the
process. Basic amp models can be edited
and saved easily enough, but getting
down and dirty with cabinet emulation
and detailed effects parameters requires
the freely downloadable Vyzex software.

Sans software, setting up your own
sounds and saving them is a breeze and
won’t even require skimming the manual
for previous POD owners; although, like
my experience with previous versions of
the POD, I found it easier to start at the
point where I wanted to save, rather than
try to move my new sound to another
preset.

The Vyzex software is easy to use and
also enables the user to add presets created
by other PODites, downloadable via
Line 6’s CustomTone.com site. Once the
Pocket POD is attached to the computer
via the included USB cable and the Vyzex
software is launched, loading up downloaded
presets is as easy as clicking the
OPEN button under the L6T menu up top,
then saving by pressing the SAVE button
on the POD itself.

Crafting homebrew patches with the
Vyzex software is just as easy; start off
with an amp model on which to base
your sound, tweak every other parameter
– cabinet emulation, effects, effects
order, reverb parameters and about a
million other things – to your heart’s content,
and when everything is buttoned
up, hit SAVE on the POD. All edits to the
software are sent back to the POD so
having speakers or a headset plugged in
to the unit will allow you to monitor your
editing progress.

The Pocket POD sounds really good, and
spending some time fine-tuning your
own presets is rewarded with tones that
can work really well in home recording
situations, for quickly knocking out
arrangements on larger projects or simply
for an inspired practice session. Does it
sound exactly like a Boogie or a blackface
Deluxe or a JTM45? No, it doesn’t, but
it can sound really good, particularly in
its ability to obtain an almost ideal tonality
for a particular track with an absolute
minimum of fuss. Simply set up a few
in-the-ballpark presets, i.e. Fender-y clean,
Marshall-y crunch, Boogie-esque lead, etc.
then fine tune the EQ settings on the fly
to suit the situation. The sounds are convincing
enough, and through a nice board
or some good cans, can be truly inspiring.
Of course, it will inevitably beg the question:
“Is that a POD in your pocket?”

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